Process and device for depositing wire loops into a drum pack

ABSTRACT

A process and device are disclosed for positioning the wire while the drum packs of a drum pack winding device are exchanged. Storage fingers are provided for retaining the wire windings around a winding core while the drum packs are exchanged. In order to avoid the falling of the collected windings into the empty drum pack from being obstructed due to the connection between said windings and the filled drum pack, a wire positioning device brings the hanging wire into a position located below the storage fingers, which position is well-suited for the changing of the drum packs. The wire is held in this position until the new drum pack is in the winding position. The wire positioning device is then brought back to its initial position and the wire can fall into the empty drum pack without any obstructions.

The present invention relates to a device for depositing wire windingsin a drum pack. The term "wire" is not only to be understood as a baremetal wire but also as a wire which has already been processed, forexample, a wire having a varnish or an insolating layer or the like, aswell as, a wire strand which may or may not have a covering, and thelike.

A drum pack winder of the known type mentioned above comprises adepositing device which normally feeds the wire to the winder at a highvelocity and the wire is wound in windings around a stationarycylindrical winding core having a vertical axis. The winding device isformed in such a way that as soon as a predetermined number of wirewindings is wound on the winding core, the lowermost wire winding fallsin the drum pack. Due to the high wire feeding velocities this processtakes place relatively quickly so that five windings or more per secondfall in the drum pack.

The drum pack itself is likewise cylindrically formed whereby the(fictitious) cylindrical axis coincides with the (fictitious)cylindrical axis of the winding core. In the drum pack, there isnormally a likewise cylindrical drum pack core which prevents theindividual windings becoming tangled.

Drum pack winding devices have the advantage that in a short time alarge amount of wire can be wound which, on the other hand, can be veryquickly pulled out from the drum pack in the case that a furtherprocessing is necessary.

A particular problem with the drum pack winder is the changing of thedrum pack. Due to the high velocities, the feeding of the wire from, forexample, a rolling carriageway, a drawing facility or the like, cannotbe interrupted when the drum pack is exchanged. As is disclosed in DE-AS20 38 133, it is therefore normal in the prior art to provide a numberof slidable or swingable storage fingers arranged around the windingcore which are to be moved on the winding core as soon as the drum packlocated in the device is full. As a result, the wire windings aretherefore prevented from falling in the drum pack and collect togetheron the winding core. As soon as the new drum pack is positioned in thewinding device, the storage fingers are pulled back and the collectedwindings fall in the empty drum pack. This phase of the exchangingprocess is particularly critical since it often occurs that thecollected windings get jammed or tilted when falling down and then arepartly kept hanging at the guide cylinder or at the drum pack core orbecome tangled in some other way. In this case, the wire windings whichfollow can no longer reach into the drum pack and due to the large wirefeeding velocity, large amounts of wire collect quickly outside thewinding device. Therefore, DE-AS 20 38 133 suggests to develope thestorage fingers in the form of an arc according to a type of irisaperture.

DE-OS 27 08 857, shows likewise a corresponding drum pack winding devicehaving four sector-like storage fingers for catching the wire windingsduring a drum pack exchange and which are transferable from an outerposition which does not interfere with the falling of the windings, toan inner position in which the windings are held. A wire cutting deviceis provided between the holding device and the drum pack in order to cutthe wire during a drum pack exchange.

DE-PS 22 13 172, shows a further drum pack changing device. In thiscase, in order to prevent a jamming or tilting of the windings heldduring the changing of the drum pack, a cylindrical extension piece isused which is attached onto the drum pack core.

With the above described drum pack changing devices, the wire is cutduring the changing of the drum pack. However, with numerousapplications it is necessary that the wire is transferred from a filleddrum pack into the next empty drum pack without any interruption. Thisis, above all, the case when a changing of the drum pack takes placewithin a closed production process and the wire wound in the drum packsafterwards undergoes a further processing.

When the full drum pack is then pushed out sideways from the windingdevice, a continuous wire piece is produced which reaches from thefilled drum pack to the winding core onto which wire windings are alsocontinually wound during the changing process. Should then the storagefingers be pulled back, the danger that the windings jam when fallinginto the empty drum pack considerably increases with respect to thosedevices with which the wire is cut during the changing process. When oneconsiders that the filling of a drum pack for some applications requiresonly a few minutes and therefore a number of drum pack exchanges perhour must be carried out, it is clear that problems with the changing ofthe drum pack could cause a considerable disturbance in the manufactureoperation.

It is therefore the task of the present invention to provide a drum packwinding device and a process for positioning the wire in a drum packwinding device during the drum pack exchange, through which it isachieved that the known problems, that is, in particular the jamming ofthe wire windings collected on the winding core during the exchange ofthe drum pack, does not occur when the wire windings fall into the emptydrum pack.

With the present invention, first of all, the possibility is achieved toposition the wire during the drum pack exchange that it is always foundsubstantially in the same position which does not interfere with thefalling of the collected windings. In order to achieve this, a number ofmovable wire positioning fingers is provided which are guided on arotatable ring arranged concentric to the winding core whereby thepositioning fingers are located underneath the storage fingers. Whilethe storage fingers are all moved on the winding core at the same timein order to hold the wire windings which have collected there, themovement of the positioning fingers with reference to the winding coreis controlled such that the positioning fingers are moved successivelyduring a rotation of the ring holding them that they contact the windingcore one after the other. As a result, it is ensured that, independentfrom the position in which the wire is located, before the positioningdevice is started the wire is always held by the first positioningfinger contacting with the winding core. Therefore, it is possible tostop the rotation of the ring such that the falling of the wire in thedrum pack is not obstructed by the wire connection to the previouslyused drum pack which is now full. Consequently, a jamming of the wirewindings falling in the drum pack is reliably prevented and a sureoperation of the drum pack changing process is ensured.

The invention will now be described in detail with reference to thefigures whereby, it is pointed out that all the features mentioned inthe description are to be seen as belonging to the invention.

FIG. 1A to 1D show a principal representation of a drum pack presentedwinding device according to the prior art during the process of changinga drum pack presented for explaining the problems the invention is basedon;

FIG. 2 shows in a principal sketch of a side view of the drum packwinding device according to the invention having a wire positioningdevice;

FIG. 3 shows a sectional drawing of the drum pack winding deviceaccording to FIG. 2 seen from above whereby, the elements of the wirepositioning device are in their initial positions;

FIG. 4 shows a representation according to FIG. 3 in which the wirepositioning device is located in its end position.

The technical problem on which the invention is based will now bedescribed in detail with reference to FIGS. 1A to 1D.

A conventional drum pack winding device is shown in FIGS. 1A-1Dcomprising an outer jacket 1 and a stationary cylindrical winding core 2arranged concentric therewith. Wire windings are laid on this windingcore with a depositing device or laying-in device not shown in thefigures. At the winding core, a device (not shown in the figures) isprovided which causes the respective lowermost wire winding to fall intoa winding drum pack 4 arranged exactly vertically below the winding coreupon reaching a predetermined number of wire windings on the windingcore.

The winding drum pack 4 which is normally put together from a metalframe has an outer drum pack covering 4 and an inner drum pack core 5arranged concentric thereto.

The drum pack winding device is, for example, arranged behind a wiredrawing machine intended for non-iron metals, and winds up the wirerunning out of the machine with a high velocity.

The drum pack winding machine has an automatic drum pack changing deviceby means of which the full drum pack according to the representation ofFIG. 1A is moved leftwards and an empty drum pack is positioned underthe winding core 2. Since the production may not be interrupted duringthe changing of the drum pack, the wire windings which have been run-induring this time are collected on the winding core 2. In order toprevent a falling down of the wire windings, four storage fingers 11,12, 13, 14 are provided which are arranged with the same angulardistance to one another and are moved onto the winding core by a device,not shown, as soon as the first drum pack is full. When now the fulldrum pack 4 is moved leftwards from the drum pack winding device, thewire connection 6 which is now further wound on the winding core,remains connected with the wire on the winding pack which is indicatedby the wire piece 6a.

This wire connection is necessary in every case when the wire wound upin the individual drum packs should then be further processed withoutany interruption. For example, should drum packs 1 to 10 be filled withwire, the further processing can be carried out by the wire being pulledout afterwards from the last i.e. the tenth drum pack and then pulledout accordingly one by one from the other drum packs.

The wire connection 6a however, normally must also be available when thewire is cut between the individual drum packs and the drum packs areindividually transported and processed. Since the processing is normallycarried out again in automatic facilities, the possibility must be madeavailable that the wire end wound at the beginning in the empty drumpack can be connected with the start of the wire of another drum packand therefore the wire end should be made accessible and should alreadybe fed out from the drum pack before the winding step.

When the storage fingers, identified with 11, 12, 13 and 14, are guidedto the winding core for the changing of a drum pack, the wire loop lyinglowermost on the winding core can end after the storage finger 11, aswell as after the storage fingers 12, 13 and 14, such that the wireextends from one of said storage fingers to the full drum pack. Whenthis situation arises, as is shown in FIG. 1A, where here the lowermostwire winding ends at the storage finger 11, the process of changing adrum pack is unproblematic. In this situation, the collected windingscan fall into the empty drum pack without interference.

The advantage of the position shown in FIG. 1A is that by the extensionof the wire piece 6a around the storage finger 11 to the storage finger13, a wire loop is formed which upon the storage finger 11 being pulledback, is so long that the wire winding can fall under without anyproblems and can be received from the drum pack without any jamming orthe like.

Particularly critical is the position according to FIG. 1B i.e., whenthe lowermost winding ends at the storage finger 12. In this situation,the wire can either extend to the middle axis of the winding core, as isshown by the pulled through wire piece 6a, or, it can extend away fromthe middle point to the full drum pack as is shown by the dashed linesof wire piece 6b. In the last case, a knot is formed which makes itconsiderably more difficult to further process the wire.

According to the representation of FIG. 1C, the lowermost winding endsat the storage finger 13. This means that the wire extends above thestorage finger 13 and under the storage finger 14. When the storagefingers are opened in this position there arises the danger that thewire loops will jam when falling down.

The same problem arises also with the situation according to FIG. 1D aswith the situation according to FIG. 1C. Here, the danger also arisesthat the wire windings can jam when falling down.

The device according to the invention will now be described in referenceto FIGS. 2, 3 and 4. For simplification, the same reference numbers areused as in FIG. 1.

The drum pack winding device has a stationary, rotational symmetricwinding core 2 whose longitudinal axis is arranged vertically. Thewinding core 2 has an upper substantially tapered portion 2a whichserves to receive the wire windings, and a joining cylindrical portion2b through which the wire windings are guided.

A cylindrical drum pack 4 constructed from a pipe is provided exactlyunderneath the winding core 2 and has in its interior, a cylindricaldrum pack core 5 extending concentric to the outer cylinder, and whichis conically tapered in its upper region 5a. The (fictitious)cylindrical axis of the drum pack 4 coincides with the axis 3.

A jacket 1 of the drum pack winding device is arranged concentric to thewinding core 2.

In the jacket 1 of the drum pack winding device, four storage fingers11, 12, 13, 14 are movably guided and are slidable with respect to thewinding core 2. The winding core 2 has four openings 18 in which thestorage fingers are gripped.

By way of a device, the storage fingers are brought simultaneously intoa pulled-back position (the position being shown in FIG. 2) whereby sucha device is known in the prior art and therefore is not shown here.

A wire positioning device is arranged underneath the storage fingers 11to 14. The wire positioning device has a rotating ring 30 arrangedconcentric to the winding core 2. The ring 30 is formed as a belt diskand receives on its outer circumference a belt 32 placed over a beltdisk 33 of a driving motor 35. Three wire positioning fingers 41, 43 and44 are movably guided in the rotatable ring in such a way that they canbe moved in the direction towards and away from the cylinder axis of thewinding core as indicated by the double arrow 42 at the positioningfinger 41.

Each one of the positioning fingers 41, 43 and 44 has a roller 46 bymeans of which it is guided to a connecting lever guide 47. The leverguide 47 has a first region 47a which extends approximately 180° of acircle in which the lever guide extends concentric to the winding core.In the clockwise direction a second region 47b is joined thereto whichsignificantly reduces the distance of the guide to the winding core.Joining on from this, again in a clockwise direction, is an angularregion of around 135° in which no guide is present.

The functioning of this device is as follows:

In normal operation, the windings of a wire being run-in in the windingdevice are wound around the winding core 2 with a depositing orlaying-in device, not shown, in order to then fall in the winding drumpack 4, where they are centred by the drum pack core 5. As soon as thedrum pack 4 is filled the storage fingers 11, 12, 13, 14 are moved ontothe winding core and prevent further windings being able to fall in thedrum pack. The windings are then collected together in the regionbetween the jacket 1 and the winding core 2.

As soon as the storage fingers are brought into their holding positionthe wire positioning device is activated. At the same time, the motor 35is switched on via a control device, not shown, and rotates such thatthe rotatable ring 30 is rotated clockwise. The positioning fingers 41,43 and 44 also move together with the ring 30 whereby they are supportedwith the roller 46 on the lever guide 47.

The lever guide 47 comprises a partial region 47a arranged concentric tothe ring 30. So long as the rollers 46 lie against this part of thelever guide, their distance to the winding core does not change.

In an angular position, which lies behind the angular position of thestorage finger 11 seen in a clockwise direction, the lever guide is benttowards the winding core 2, so that in this region, the positioningfingers are brought in contact with the winding core 2 via the rollers46.

As a result, that the lever guide is so formed that the positioningfingers first reach the winding core behind the storage finger 11, sothat the wire is always taken-up by the first positioning finger 41independent in which position it is found to be in.

The circumferential ring rotates around exactly 315° from the initialposition of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3. Thereafter, as can be seenfrom FIG. 4, the said first positioning finger 41 lies exactly under thestorage finger 11, the second positioning finger 44 is exactly under thestorage finger 14 and the third positioning finger 43 is exactly underthe storage finger 13. Since the wire always hangs above the firstpositioning finger 41, it is therefore ensured that the wire, after saidrotation of around 315°, finds itself exactly in the position shown inFIG. 1A.

As soon as the positioning is carried out, the full drum pack is removedleftwards, in the FIGS. 1 to 4, from the winding device which normallyhas available an automatic conveying device. A new drum pack is movedinto the winding device and positioned, under the winding core 2. Assoon as the drum pack is positioned, the motor 35 receives a furthercontrol signal and rotates now in the reverse direction so that thecircumferential ring in the drawings according to FIG. 3 and 4, rotatesanti-clockwise. At the same time, as soon as the positioning fingersreach the end of the lever guide in the region 47b, by way of the leverguide, they are removed from the winding core and finally reach back intheir initial position. The wire now hangs down from the same storagefinger from which it hung from before the activation of the wirepositioning device. The wire can now no longer hang above the drum packcore or form knots. The storage fingers are now opened and the wirewindings collected together can now fall in the empty drum pack withoutany impediment.

With the above described embodiment in total, four storage fingers andthree positioning fingers are used. However, the number of storagefingers and positioning fingers can deviate from this amount. What isdecisive is that the lever guide 47 is formed such that the forwardmovement of the positioning finger to the winding core first takes placewhen the positioning finger during the rotating movement has passed thestorage finger which position is most favourable for the drum packexchange. Furthermore, it is significant that the rotating movement isfurther carried out until the first positioning finger in contact withthe winding core 2 comes to the preferred position beneath the storagefinger 11.

According to the embodiment, four storage fingers are used having arespective angular position of 90° to one another, and three positioningfingers which likewise have an angular position of 90° to one another.The initial position of the positioning device is such that the firstpositioning finger 41 is located in the preferred position at an angulardistance of 45° from the storage finger 11. Since the angular positionbetween the storage finger 11 at the preferred position and thepositioning finger 41, amounts to 45° a rotation of 315° must be carriedout in order to rotate said first positioning finger 41 to be underneathsaid storage finger 11.

It should be pointed out, that also other numbers of positioning fingerscall be used and that also the size of the angular rotation can also bedifferent. What is significant is that the positioning finger firstreaches the winding core behind or after the storage finger having thepreferred position and is then rotated until it comes to positionbeneath the storage finger.

I claim:
 1. Drum pack winding device for winding string-like goods, inparticular wire, having an upper surface covering, insulated wire andthe like, comprising:a winding core (2) which is substantiallycylindrical and is arranged vertically; a depositing device whichdeposits wire windings onto said winding core, whereby the winding coreis formed such that the respective lowermost wire windings fall into awinding drum pack (4) arranged underneath the winding core as soon asthe number of wire windings wound on the winding core overshoots apredetermined number, a catch device comprising at least three storagefingers (11, 12, 13, 14) distributed around the circumference of thewinding core and which are movable relative to the winding core (2) insuch a way that they hold the wire windings wound on the winding coreduring the changing of the winding drum pack, characterized by furthercomprising, a wire positioning device having a rotatable ring (30)arranged concentric to the winding core, whereby on said ring a numberof positioning fingers (41, 43, 44) are movably guided, said fingersbeing arranged at an angular distance to one another; a driving device(32, 33, 35) controlled by a control device by means of which therotatable ring (30) is rotatable from a first, initial position whichthe ring occupies before the changing of the drum pack, to a second,changing position which the ring occupies during the changing of thedrum pack; a guiding device (47) by means of which the positioningfingers are guided, whereby the guiding device is formed such that thepositioning fingers are transferred from a first position in which theyare held at a distance to the winding core, to a second position inwhich they are in contact with the winding core, whereby said movementof the positioning fingers is then carried out when the positioningfingers have crossed a first storage finger (11), during the rotationfrom the initial position to the changing position, and which positionis particularly favourable for the changing of the drum pack; and inthat the control device is formed such that the rotation of the rotatingring (30) is stopped when the first positioning finger (41) whichreaches the position contacting with the winding core (2), is locatedvertically below the first storage finger (11); and in that the drivingdevice (32, 33, 35) rotates the rotating ring (30) after the changing ofthe drum pack from said changing position back to said initial position.2. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the number ofpositioning fingers (41, 43, 44) equals but one less than the number ofstorage fingers (11, 12, 13, 14) and that the separating angle of thepositioning fingers corresponds to the separating angle of the storagefingers, whereby, when the rotating ring (30) is in its changingposition, below the second storage finger (12) which lies in therotating direction from the initial position to the changing positionbehind the first storage finger (11), there is no positioning finger. 3.Device according to claim 2, characterized in that the storage fingerand/or the positioning finger are formed substantially as cylindricalrods whose cylindrical axis extends through the cylindrical axis of thewinding core (2).
 4. Device according to claim 3, characterized in thatthe guiding device is formed as a lever guide (47) and that eachpositioning finger has at least one roller (46) which is supported onsaid lever guide (47).
 5. Device according to claim 3, characterized inthat the rotating ring (30) is formed substantially cylindrical and itsouter circumference is formed as a belt disk which receives a belt (32)which is connected with the driving device (35).
 6. Device according toclaim 4, characterized in that the rotating,ring (30) is formedsubstantially cylindrical and its outer circumference is formed as abelt disk which receives a belt (32) which is connected with the drivingdevice (35).
 7. Device according to claim 2, characterized in that theguiding device is formed as a lever guide (47) and that each positioningfinger has at least one roller (46) which is supported on said leverguide (47).
 8. Device according to claim 7, characterized in that therotating ring (30) is formed substantially cylindrical and its outercircumference is formed as a belt disk which receives a belt (32) whichis connected with the driving device (35).
 9. Device according to claim2, characterized in that the rotating ring (30) is formed substantiallycylindrical and its outer circumference is formed as a belt disk whichreceives a belt (32) which is connected with the driving device (35).10. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the storagefinger and/or the positioning finger are formed substantially ascylindrical rods whose cylindrical axis extends through the cylindricalaxis of the winding core (2).
 11. Device according to claim 10,characterized in that the guiding device is formed as a lever guide (47)and that each positioning finger has at least one roller (46) which issupported on said lever guide (47).
 12. Device according to claim 11,characterized in that the rotating ring (30) is formed substantiallycylindrical and its outer circumference is formed as a belt disk whichreceives a belt (32) which is connected with the driving device (35).13. Device according to claim 10, characterized in that the rotatingring (30) is formed substantially cylindrical and its outercircumference is formed as a belt disk which receives a belt (32) whichis connected with the driving device (35).
 14. Device according to claim1, characterized in that the guiding device is formed as a lever guide(47) and that each positioning finger has at least one roller (46) whichis supported on said lever guide (47).
 15. Device according to claim 14,characterized in that the rotating ring (30) is formed substantiallycylindrical and its outer circumference is formed as a belt disk whichreceives a belt (32) which-is connected with the driving device (35).16. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the rotating ring(30) is formed substantially cylindrical and its outer circumference isformed as a belt disk which receives a belt (32) which is connected withthe driving device (35).
 17. A method for positioning wire during theprocess of changing a drum pack in a drum pack winding device having asubstantially cylindrical winding core arranged vertically on which wirewindings are collected during the changing process, said methodcomprising:holding the wire windings with three or more storage fingers,distributed around the circumference of the winding core, rotating awire positioning device arranged below said storage fingers and having anumber of positioning fingers guided on a rotatable ring arrangedconcentric to the winding core, guiding said positioning fingers in sucha way that during rotation of said rotatable ring, the positioningfingers contact the winding core as soon as the positioning fingers havecrossed the first of said storage fingers, said first storage fingerhaving the shortest distance to the filled drum pack during the changingof the drum pack, and stopping the rotation of said rotatable ring assoon as the first positioning finger which contacts the winding coreduring the rotation is substantially located in an angular positioncorresponding to the angular position of said first storage finger.